Rebellion at Skye Edge

An account of these events appears in Reminiscences of Old Sheffield, Its Streets & Its People by R.E.Leader, published 1896, where a group of men who had lived in the town in the 1840s are recorded in conversation during the 1870s.One, named as Johnson, says: “On the 12th September, 1839, the Chartists held a ” silent” meeting in Paradise square, which was dispersed by the soldiers and police. The Chartists reassembled in ‘Doctor’s field’, at the bottom of Duke street, Sheffield moor, where they were followed by the soldiers and police, and 36 prisoners taken. At the Town Hall, next day, which was guarded by the dragoons, and the doors kept by policemen armed with cutlasses, I saw several anxious mothers inquiring for their missing ones. Amongst the rest was the mother of a young man who has since been an influential citizen in St. George’s ward. He was tried at the assizes and acquitted. A night or two after the Doctor’s field meeting, hearing there was to be a Chartist meeting at Skye edge in the Park, my brother and I tried to find Skye edge, but not succeeding, met the Chartists coming away. They marched down Duke street, singing lustily a Chartist melody:”Press forward, press forward, There’s nothing to fear, We will have the Charter, be it ever so dear.–